The Role of Purpose, Approach-Avoidance, Self-Efficacy, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Locus of Control in
Undergraduates' Source Selection
Rachel Williams and Kyung-Sun Kim

Monday, 6:30pm

Summary

The primary objective of this research study is to explore differences in sources selected by undergraduate
students in relation to two factors: 1) purpose of search, and 2) scores on the Problem-Solving Inventory
(PSI) based on sources undergraduate students select for both course-related and
everyday-life information seeking purposes. Also considered are differences in self-efficacy, intolerance of uncertainty, and external locus of control
scores reliant upon sources selected initially during a search process. Two main
research questions were the focus of this study. First, what types of information sources do undergraduates tend to use first during an
everyday-life or course-related search, and is context important? Second, do certain user
characteristics influence the selection of the first source selected during information searches? A series of chi square and one tailed t
tests were performed to examine these research questions in depth. The overarching goal of
this research is to use these results to better understand and structure information services for undergraduates.